


Someone Take Me Home To The Wilderness

by BlueEyesBlueHeart



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Bombs, Bugle - Freeform, Guns, I am so sorry, Jack's awful singing, Minor Character Death, Shrapnel - Freeform, TRELLEBORG, a bit o' blood, the whole lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-07-27 08:22:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16215188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueEyesBlueHeart/pseuds/BlueEyesBlueHeart
Summary: Magnus Chase and the Zombie Apocalypse AU, because why not?I imagined a shooting star leaving a streak in my vision as I stared up at the night sky. I lay spread-eagle on a rooftop, the stars reminding me of a distant past that left me feeling empty.I heard the low groans below me, theDraugrwere just wandering. For now. I was thankful that we had found this gas station, otherwise we’d be in another cave or worse for the night. I heard the faint breathing of my two companions and stared at the sky again.





	1. Ew! Half A Zombie.

**Author's Note:**

> Are you going to neglect the two WIP's you started in favour of another one? 
> 
> Yes, yes I am. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one. I felt like MCGA deserved a Zombie Apocalypse AU, so here it is. I may, MAY, add the other Riordanverse characters, though Annabeth is a vital part of MCGA so she and Percy will definitely show up. 
> 
> And because I haven't read the Burning Maze and I'm living in denial, if I add Jason he will NOT die (or will he?), no, he won't, shut up inner sadistic writer, you are not welcome in this. 
> 
> This entire thing was inspired by Home by Bebe Rexha (ft. Machine Gun Kelly & X Ambassadors), don't judge me too harshly, it was a Voltron AMV that introduced me to it.

I imagined a shooting star leaving a streak in my vision as I stared up at the night sky. I lay spread-eagle on a rooftop, the stars reminding me of a distant past that left me feeling empty.

I heard the low groans below me, the _Draugr_ were just wandering, for now. I was thankful that we had found this gas station, otherwise we’d be in another cave or worse for the night. I heard the faint breathing of my two companions and stared at the sky again.

 

_“You know the best place to go in a zombie apocalypse, Magnus?” My mother asked. We’d camped in a spot by the river in the new wilderness park she’d found. We were getting bored, so we’d resorted to weird late-night questions._

_I thought about it for a while, tapping my chin and pouting dramatically, my mom laughed. “A mountain?” I said uncertainly, bringing my eyes up to meet hers._

_“Well, yeah,” she rolled her eyes, “but it’d get cold, don’t you think? Try something closer to the ground.”_

_“Uh… Target?” I asked again, trying to think of a similar conversation I’d overheard at school._

_“Hmm… that would be good…” she paused as if mentally making a battle plan. “But what about the IKEA near the highway in Boston? Lots of high places and furniture to barricade with right?”_

_“Oh yeah, that would work!” I nearly shouted, my mom placed a finger to her lips, smiling at me._

_“Do you wanna go and survey it before I go to work on Monday?” She said quietly. Her face was full of mischief; this trip wasn’t going to be the most legal of things, I could tell._

_I nodded enthusiastically. She laughed again and stroked my cheek. My eyes immediately felt heavy. I curled up on my sleeping bag and bedroll before saying, “Love you, Mom.”_

_Her eyes twinkled, “I love you too, Magnus.”_

 

The next morning I stretched my back and groaned as I felt the sunlight peek through my eyes. Normally, I’m a morning person, but when you’re walking for miles each day trying to find something you don’t even know you’re looking for gets exhausting.

 _Don’t think about what you’re doing, Magnus. Don’t hesitate, or you’ll fall. Just keep going._ My mom had said. Granted, that was what she had said when I was learning to ride a bike, but now I used it as my motto. Which was what I was chanting under my breath when I forced myself to rise.

When I looked around, I saw that Hearth had already risen. He had his back to me, rifling through his pack for what I assumed was food. My eyes then landed on a heap that was still snoring like all hell and I couldn’t help a small smile at him. It was a mistake to try and wake Blitz in the morning, only Hearth could really make him get up. It was weird to me that Blitz could just _sleep_ , I always kept one eye open, have done since the Beginning and maybe even before that, I can’t really remember. Point is, I haven’t relaxed properly for about three years.

So, seeing as I couldn’t do anything else, I walked over to Hearth and stood in front of him. He looked up. _Do you need help?_ I signed, scrunching my eyebrows and tilting my head in question.

Hearth’s eyebrows knitted as he signed, _Our food supply is dwindling._ There isn’t actually a sign for _dwindling_ in ASL, but I took creative liberty when he made a sign with both of his hands jerking towards each other three times; _lessen_ or _decline_. _I’m worried,_ he glanced at Blitzen, who had not moved from his spot.

 _Make the best with what we have,_ I signed back once his attention was back on me. _We’ll find more._ Then I crossed both of my fingers, the sign for _hopefully_.

He did the same, before turning to Blitzen and making an exasperated sign to me. Then he stomped over and all but kicked him awake.

“WAAHH!” He yelled, grabbing his small knife and slashing where Hearth had been standing moments ago. Seeing that he hadn’t stabbed anything, Blitz rubbed his eyes and looked up at Hearth with an unreadable expression. Then he descended into sign language so fast I couldn’t decipher it quickly enough and Hearth replied with the same rapid signs.

From what I could work out, Blitz was pissed at being woken up by kicking and Hearth was adamant that it was necessary. I almost laughed at their antics before remembering my dream about my mom. Man, that’ll put a damper on anyone’s mood. I turned away from them and looked out on the vast fields that were left unchecked since the Beginning. Mom hated fields, she hated that something as beautiful as nature could be cultivated into ugly rows that were exploited by farming companies that had no respect for the plants themselves, just the profit.

I wish I could go back to before all this happened and somehow prevent it, or prevent her death. I wished I had her with me for the millionth time since she was gone. My throat felt dry and my eyes started to well up. I clenched my fists and wiped my eyes furiously. I focused on a decapitated _Draugr_ in the middle of the road thanks to Hearth and his makeshift double-edged spear currently strapped to his back (if the foreshadowing and indirect mentions have gone over your head, the _Draugr_ are zombies. What? I think it’s a cool name for them, makes it seem cool). The masses of blood made me less inclined to think about her. I know repressing feelings isn’t healthy, but it’s not as if I can afford to, because I can’t, not when we’re living as we are.

I turn back to see Blitz and Hearth staring at me, concerned. I gave them a reassuring smile and gestured to the food bag, then patted my stomach. Then I thought of a brilliant idea (yes, I have those, shut up). _Could we go downstairs and poke around?_ I signed. Blitz wasn’t deaf like Hearth, so I could’ve spoken, but I figured being silent was best.

They glanced at each other wearily, I knew that the place had probably been looted and was crawling with _Draugr_ , but that didn’t stop me from getting excited about it. _Come on, please?_ I stuck out my bottom lip to gain a sympathy vote. I know Blitz has a soft spot for it.

Said person rolled his eyes and signed, _Fine_. Hearth gawked but didn’t argue, content to say _I told you so_ later if things went wrong. Which, knowing us, they definitely would.

Once we hopped down, there was no _Draugr_ to be seen but we didn’t let our guards down. I had a baseball bat I stole from my school when I was running from Boston initially. Thanks to Hearth’s suggestions I hammered some nails into the top to do more damage since I definitely wasn’t strong enough to kill a _Draugr_ with my swing alone, in fact the day I found that out was the day I met them both, so, silver lining I guess.

We had to wrench the doors open, which gave me hope that no _Draugr_ had gotten in. I kicked myself as soon as I thought it because a black shape hurled itself at the door from the inside once the doors were halfway open. Blitz yelled and dropped the doors, they slid shut quickly enough to almost completely crush the _Draugr_ in half. At the sound, another stirred, it was right next to me and grabbed onto my arm and neck. I cursed myself for being too excited to check our surroundings.

Hearth whirled when he felt my hand leave his arm, he grabbed his double-edged spear and motioned for me to duck. Let me tell you, when Hearth is holding that spear, you’d better do what he says. So I did.

It took a lot of energy to yank my head out of the _Draugr’s_ grip, but I managed it and, boom, there’s another decapitated _Draugr_ head for Hearth’s resume. Blitz had made quick work of the one inside-and-outside of the station as well.

Hearth then snapped his fingers to get our attention. _We are not going in there. Too risky._ I raised my hands to argue but he stopped me. His face was scarily devoid of any emotion.   _No_ , he signed.

And that was the end of it.


	2. The (Car) Ride Of The Valkyries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Magnus has a bit of a potty mouth, whoops...

Our trek was getting really tiresome, the rest of the food we had was pitiful, especially since we were in the middle of buttfuck nowhere with no hope of civilisation since that damn gas station. I still thought we could’ve gone in there, but Hearth had said no and I wasn’t about to start an argument with him.

Honestly the two of them are like my cool, young, surrogate parents, I joked about it once, which ended in an argument about who was the mom and who was the dad. It ended pretty quickly with them saying they were both my dad’s since I wasn’t ever going to replace my mom. My dad? Yeah, I could live with replacing him, though it’s not so much replacing as it is just filling the space, since my dad was… _absent,_ to say the least.

I tried to amuse myself by hopping from crack to crack on the road ahead of Hearth and Blitz. I was aware that doing so with my hands on my Star Wars backpack’s straps made me look like a child, but I just didn’t care at this point. When I glanced back to Hearth and Blitz to check if they were okay, they were a bit further back than I thought they would be. I squinted against the sunlight, trying to see them, but they had stopped.

Well, that’s strange. I walked back to them and touched their shoulders gently, they looked at me between them and Blitz pointed ahead to where a silhouette was coming towards us. It was too big to be a _Draugr_ … A car?

I could hear a faint humming sound and deduced that, yes, it was a car. Which meant more people that weren’t _Draugr’s_. Now that I thought about it, we hadn’t seen _any_ people for a few months now. The last ones we saw were pretty much grade-A assholes and stole most of our food before we raided them back and got out of their camp _ASAP_ in case they wanted to kill us or something.

So finding more people didn’t exactly fill me with joy.

Nevertheless we waited by the side of the road, just enough out of the way to make a run for it if the guy driving decided to gun it past us, but not too far as to not be seen. The battered SUV halted right in front of us.

The window rolled down and a guy with short red hair and aviators was revealed. He stared at the horizon and didn’t turn at all. In a deep voice that was definitely forced, he said, “Get in. No time to explain.”

I was really confused. Hearth and Blitz were having a full conversation with the wary looks they were giving each other. I was about to say, _No thanks, we’re good_. But then an exasperated voice spoke up behind Aviator Guy, “Jack, can you not be dramatic for, like, two seconds?”

Aviator Guy- Jack, let out an offended gasp that made it even more obvious to me that this guy would have definitely been a theatre kid or something. “But Sammy-”

She abruptly cut him off, “Don’t call me that.”

He carried on as if she hadn’t said anything, “-do you know how long I’ve wanted to do that? I mean, I _literally_ only tried to go on this job because I can do that!”

“We both know why that’s not true, and stop abusing the word ‘literally’, I don’t think it means what it is _literally_ supposed to mean anymore.” Sammy (wait I shouldn’t call her that, I’m going to go with Sam, that’s a safe bet) replied.

I am so confused. “Uh, can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?” I said, trying to see into the car for a better gage on what we were up against.

Jack gasped again, “Language! We have a poor, innocent Muslim girl in this car!”

I could practically _hear_ Sam roll her eyes, “Jack, shut up, I’ve heard worse from you.” Finally, as Jack slumped I could see her face pop up, her head was covered in a hijab that was a very nice shade of green. “Anyway, hi, we’re a scout car from Hotel Valhalla, do you want to join us?”

I don’t know why, it was probably the familiar Norse term (I liked Norse mythology, my mom used to read me a book about it when I was younger), but I immediately said, “Yeah, sure, why not?” Then Blitzen grabbed my arms and turned me around. Both of them then went into rapid sign language about how this was a bad idea. _But they might have food and shelter and food and falafel-_ I signed quickly. Blitz grabbed my hands before I could go any further.

They shared a look before Hearth signed, _Fine_.

I turned around again, both of them looking on in astonishment, I guess they hadn’t seen ASL before? “Ok, now we have agreed and I am not solely responsible for our deaths if you guys turn out to be evil.” I could hear Blitzen facepalm behind me. Whoops, too late to take back my words now.

Sam rolled her eyes, she seemed to do that a lot, “Yeah ok, get in guys.”

The doors were unlocked the whole time which made me wonder if that was intentional or if the lock mechanism was broken, because having unlocked doors in a zombie apocalypse seemed like a bad decision. Then the little spikey things popped up on the inside of the doors, so definitely intentional then.

Sam turned to us and said in a professional voice, “Hi, I’m Samirah Al-Abbas and I’m your Valkyrie-”

“So am I!” Jack chimed in unprofessionally.

Samirah did not seem like she was down with Jack being a Valkyrie. “Why couldn’t I have come alone, oh my…” she muttered.

Jack hummed. “You know that’s because Gunilla won’t let you drive a car yet. I was the only one available with the capability!” He exclaimed.

Samirah made a throttling motion with her hands before speaking again, “Okay, so you might be wondering why the weird Viking nicknames, well… It is weird, but the guy who owns the hotel likes to be called Odin and is pretty much obsessed with Viking stuff, so we just play along because why not?”

I did not like where this role-playing thing was going and it must’ve shown on my face because Samirah immediately said, “He’s a good guy, I swear he’s not interested in killing you.” She gave me _look_ at the end of her sentence and I flushed red, cursing my blabbering mouth. “And anyway, we have about thirty to forty minutes of driving before we get to the hotel, we were going to get fuel and supplies at the gas stations in this direction, I suppose you stayed at the latest one last night?”

We all nodded, even Hearth who had been reading Sam’s lips while watching Blitzen try to translate for him. Then something clicked and I looked meaningfully at Hearth before saying, “So the last gas station, it was safe to go inside?”

It was Sam’s turn to look confused, “Yeah? Didn’t you sleep there last night? You just said!”

“We slept on the roof.” I answered immediately.

Samirah blinked, “Um, ok. But yeah, I mean there was a zombie in the door but that was the only one so I don’t know why you didn’t go inside...” At this I felt uneasy because I didn’t want Hearth to have to explain himself for not wanting to go in, I know he’s had some bad experiences, he very rarely let us take risks and when we did it was mainly because I went in first.

“Uh, we didn’t think we needed anything, all this stuff was weighing us down.” I lied.

Samirah didn’t look the slightest bit convinced, but she dropped it, for which I was grateful. Before she turned around to sit in her seat properly, she whispered, “Sorry for this, but since the radio in this car is busted Jack takes it upon himself to-”

Right on cue Jack started singing Frank Sinatra, dramatically pointing at Sam at seemingly random points, probably so she would sing the harmony or backing vocals or whatever. She didn’t. Instead she was content to stare at the overgrown fields, ignoring all of us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am way too proud of the Chapter title if I'm honest... 
> 
> I don't know whether I'll be able to keep up one chapter a day, but I'll try. I really want to finish a fic for once. 
> 
> Thank you to the two lovely commenters that made my heart swell. I hope you like this chapter!


	3. Stressed Receptionists Will Outlive All Of Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, ok, listen... how long has it been? 
> 
> I don't actually know, but I HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON THIS! 
> 
> Anyway, if you want to read my grovelling, go to the end, but for now just read this chapter if you want.

The car ride - while it was eventful to say the least - lasted way longer than forty minutes, in my opinion. By that point Jack had exhausted his entire catalogue of Disney songs – believe me, there was a lot – and I Spy wasn’t as interesting when there were about three things to point out.

Now that I had all this time to think I wondered whether it was a good idea to go to this Valhalla place. Sam seemed nice enough, and Jack was pretty harmless while he was at the wheel, but the way they talked about this hotel made it seem huge. Apparently there was about a hundred residents there, which is unheard of after the Beginning, at least to me, anyway.

Since the apocalypse started people just have a disregard for the rules and other human life in general. Just goes to show that when shit goes down it’s every man/woman/person for themselves. So this place full of people and a so-called leader is pretty hard to believe. If I didn’t know any better (and I don’t) I’d say there was a conspiracy going on like the Ice Warriors from Doctor Who trying to change the atmosphere to be able to habituate Martian life. Are the _Draugr_ Martians? I don’t remember there being an explicit statement as to what they were, I think everyone just assumed they were zombies.

Sam probably knows, she seems like someone who would know, “Sam…”

She turned around to me, a wary look in her eye, “What? We’re almost there.”

I decided to make it quick, “Do you know what the _Dr_ \- Zombies… uh, are?” I stopped myself from saying _Draugr_ , because… I don’t know why actually.

She chuckled a bit, “They’re kind of zombies, I guess… but not like from the Walking Dead. Have you noticed that they don’t try to bite you?” I didn’t notice that really, I just assumed I got lucky. I nodded anyway. “Yeah, well, that’s because they can’t, uh, _infect_ you by biting you, they have to kill you.”

That seems to make it harder for the zombies, since they can’t climb anything and are pretty slow in sunlight, now that I think about it I’ve only seen a _Draugr_ kill two people. “How do they infect your dead body?” I asked.

Sam gave me a pained expression and was about to open her mouth to either answer me or tell me to shut up when Jack slammed his foot down and the car screeched to a halt. He turned, his expression wild and his face pulled into a painful grin, “We’re here!”

Then he shot out, running towards the large building. It was more of a motel on the side of what would have been a perfect road trip road. But that wasn’t all, there was a massive man-made hill surrounding the lot for at least a mile in a circle around the road. There was a fence on top of that too, and I could see people looking over it with makeshift bow and arrows and some kind of long-range gun that I don’t know the name of – a sniper?

We’d been inside this fortress for at least a few minutes, how had I not noticed? Sam looked relieved for a second before she muttered something I couldn’t hear and asked us not too politely to get out of the car and help her carry the supplies in, since Jack had neglected to do so. It made me wonder how much of this scouting trip she’d done alone.

I got stuck with two backpacks full of food and one fuel tank that I could barely lift. With all that, plus my own pack, I was glad that we only had to carry this stuff for a few metres, otherwise I would’ve keeled over immediately. As it was I carried the stuff to the foyer area and dumped it unceremoniously next to Sam’s. Blitz and Hearth did the same.

Sam beckoned us towards the desk that was surprisingly very well kept, considering this was the apocalypse and all. There was a guy there playing on a Gameboy which surprised me again, but I guessed that a place as big as this would probably have a way to generate some electricity. It was just a shame that WiFi no longer existed. The guy looked up as we stood over the desk, his eyes focused on Sam first then surveyed each of us his eyes lingering on me for longer than I would’ve liked.

He then raised an eyebrow at Sam. “More people, Al-Abbas?”

I could see the frustration in Sam’s face, “Yes, Helgi, what do you expect me to do? Leave them to die or run them over?”

I could tell from the look Helgi gave her that he expected her to do both of those things, probably invite him over later so he can spit on our corpses as well. They had a staring contest for about five seconds, then Helgi conceded. “Ugh, fine. It’s not like we don’t have room for more labourers anyway…” _Labourers?_ He sighed and brought out a stack of papers higher than me when he placed them on the desk. He poked around the bottom ones for a few minutes before he said, “Ah! Barrack 19, perfect.”

He looked at each of us and then pointed at me, “Blondie, name.”

I was trying to figure out whether to be offended or not at the nickname but I decided that I didn’t really care. “Um, Magnus…”

“ _Full_ name.” He was writing my name down underneath about three others already listed.

“Why do you-” He glanced up and made eye contact with me with a face that said, ‘Try me, kid.’ And if there was anything that made me really uncomfortable it was prolonged eye contact so I dropped my gaze and said, “Chase.”

He hummed and muttered, “Magnus _Chase_ , okay, now you.” He pointed at Hearth, who stared at him for a while. Then spelled his name out in ASL. Helgi watched his fingers intently, “Okay, Hearthstone… that’s not a fake name?”

 _No_ , Hearth signed. He seemed impressed that this guy knew ASL.

“Last name?” Helgi asked, looking up to see if Hearth would sign it.

 _No._ Hearth signed finally. _I don’t have one, not anymore._

I swear I heard Helgi gulp slightly at Hearth’s expression, but who wouldn’t? Guy was scary. So he didn’t press the matter. “And what about you?” He asked with a quiver to his voice.

“Blitzen.” He said as if that was it.

Helgi was not amused, “I have never had such a difficult group in my life! I’m making Hunding do this again tomorrow this is too much stress for me! Ughhhhhhh…” He placed his head on the desk so that it disappeared from my view. He stayed down there long enough for me to become concerned for him. I glanced at Sam, who had her head in her hands. _Well that’s helpful,_ I thought sarcastically.

Helgi’s head popped up again so viciously that I jumped and stumbled, “Okay.” He said evenly. “Your _last name_ , please.”

Blitz smirked, “My family’s culture is unique in terms of names, so I don’t have a last name.”

Helgi groaned. “FINE! Fine… Sam, go do whatever with your sisterhood.” He waved her off, Sam trudged back to the supplies and grabbed her axe along with two packs of food. She turned back to wave at us, and then she left. “HUNDING!” Helgi yelled so loud that I clapped my hands over my ears.

“Dude! A little warning next time?” I asked. Helgi didn’t look apologetic in the slightest.

A few minutes later an even more stressed-looking guy ran in. His breath was ragged and he had paused to bend over with his hands on his knees, he held up his hand. _Hold on._ He stood up straight and composed himself enough to walk over to us without collapsing. A good achievement.

He leaned on the counter in a suave way that would’ve been more authentic if he wasn’t about to puke. “What do you need from me?”

“Shut up, Hunding. I need you to guide these guys to Barrack 19, take the fuel to bays 2, 3 and 4, scoop the poop in Stable 7, Erik made a complaint.” Hunding’s face was becoming progressively greener as he listed more things. “Oh! And I need you to do the paperwork in the reception again next time we have new people, I can’t handle it.”

Hunding looked incredulous. “I thought you said you had it! You took over the job because last time I collapsed for doing that much work, I could’ve-”

Helgi interrupted him. “Yeah, but you didn’t, so I need you to do it otherwise I’ll report you again.”

This all seemed really unfair towards Hunding and I was about to say so when Hunding sighed, defeated. “Yeah okay.”

He guided us out of the foyer and talked us through the safety procedure of crossing the road, which was way more elaborate than necessary. It included a weird procedure against high-velocity food items. I shivered when thought about what circumstance had brought _that_ particular procedure to fruition.

When we finally reached Barrack 19, I was so confused about all the safety parameters - which literally nobody we saw while we were walking was following. But I didn’t say anything, I felt as if alerting the high-strung receptionist would make the guy have a breakdown. Which is definitely not something I want to see. The entire ‘Hotel’ was a sprawl of buildings within the circular hill. As I found out from Hunding, the circle was called a trelleborg. Another Viking thing (surprise!), which was basically a ring-hill with roads and gates in the four cardinal directions, but I only saw two exits and one road. So I guessed that this one was kind of makeshift. The centre of the ring was the motel by the road which I could only guess was for important people, and we weren’t.

The barrack was actually really big, although it seemed to be one of the smaller ones. Seeing as there was going to be only six people living in here from what I could gather it seemed a bit excessive. When I got inside, the sense of excessiveness only increased. It seemed that this barrack had ten rooms instead of just bunks, which honestly just made no sense to me. Why aren’t we living like army soldiers with no privacy? Why didn’t we have to pay or something? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for privacy, but this… Something doesn’t add up. There’s too much luxury in this place.

There has to be a catch somewhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY! 
> 
> NOT FOR THE CHAPTER, BUT FOR ME BEING A PROCRASTINATING PIECE OF SHIT. 
> 
> Anyway, for those that commented, I genuinely love you. I'm sorry for sitting on this for a while, it was already written when chapter 2 was posted and, ugh... I can't say sorry enough. 
> 
> Chapter 4 is kinda written...? 
> 
> But I'm proud of this chapter, I think, I haven't read it for a few weeks. But I have faith in past me more than current me so... yeah.
> 
> I remember one thing, trelleborg, I'm pretty chuffed with myself for thinking of looking that up, I feel like an Uncle Rick, a severely downgraded one, but an Uncle Rick nonetheless. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this and Chapter four will be up in a week at least because I'm a piece of crap. Love you! Xx


	4. I Meet New People and the Tour of Trelleborg

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you can forgive me for giving you this filler chapter after a month or so... 
> 
> Fuck, I hate myself. There are too many long paragraphs, fuck. 
> 
> The title isn't creative either, why do you read this stuff?

I woke to loud snoring and an arm wrapped around me. I had forgotten that I let Hearth and Blitz sleep with me. Get your mind out of the gutter, it was only because we all felt that something was up and we opted to take turns keeping watch like we normally did, though I guess I missed my shift.

I was thankful for the king sized bed (even though I was still uneasy about it), because Hearth is a gangly giant that takes up half of the bed with his splayed limbs and Blitz is an immovable rock once he’s asleep. I was sandwiched between the both of them so the extra space wasn’t unwelcome.

It was now that I had to face my first challenge of the day; wriggling out of there.

I failed.

I failed so hard that Blitzen was now on the floor, still asleep, and Hearth had latched onto me like a koala. Now, I almost shouted for him to get off before I remembered, Oh yeah, Hearth is deaf. And you know what the sad part of this all is? Hearth hates being woken up just as much if not more so than Blitz. I was had to take desperate measures and forcefully pushed Hearth off of me. He groaned quietly and then shoved me off the bed like, ‘If you don’t want to sleep get _off_ the bed.’

I stumbled upright and stood at the end of the bed, dazed. Then I heard a sound like a trumpet; a very loud trumpet that seemed like you had to fart in it to operate.

I went out of the room, covering my ears as I got closer to the source of the sound. The door of the barrack moved stiffly under my weight, it was still dark outside, the sun just peeking over the horizon. I rounded the door to find… a guy in his pyjamas blowing into a brass instrument like his life depended on it. His eyes were wide open and his cheeks puffed out so far I thought he was going to burst.

My eyes landed again on the instrument, I think it’s called a bugle? I had a hazy memory of my seventh grade history teacher ranting about how they were an instrument that should be implemented into current marching bands more, blah, blah. He was a bit of an idiot. Anyway, that was before I was booted out of there and onto the streets. I hadn’t even thought about school since the Beginning, I hated that fucking place.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved learning (when you aren’t doing it for a grade), and I wasn’t too misbehaved or anything. It’s just that teachers didn’t like me when I reached the dreaded, ‘sarcasm phase’ and I was an early bloomer.

I was wrenched out of my thoughts when the guy waved a hand in front of my face. It was then that I realised the noise had stopped.

“Hey,” I said without much prior thought.

His eyebrows unknitted and he plastered on an easy-going smile. “Uh, hi,” he spoke tentatively. “I, uh, guess you’re the new blood, huh?”

I’m not sure why, but the way he said ‘new blood’ unnerved me. “Um, yep!” I exclaimed. _Bring it down a notch_ , my brain suggested. “Me, and my d… two buddies,” I obliged.

“Oh, cool.”

This is one of the most awkward conversations I’ve ever had and I’m _me_. “Yes, I- I don’t suppose you know why…” I trailed off.

He picked it back up. “Why I was blasting a bugle-”  _I knew it_ “at five thirty in the morning?”

“It’s five _fucking_ thirty in the morning?!” I screeched.

“Language,” a second, familiar voice sounded. I turned. I recognised the green headscarf and the exasperated tone.

“Oh hey, Sam,” the bugle guy greeted.

“Hey TJ,” she replied. She climbed the three steps to the little patio that jutted from the front of the barrack. Then her eyes landed on me again. “I see the trumpet woke you up,” TJ muttered something under his breath, “I’ve got to take you guys around the compound for induction, just so you know the layout and where to get food and stuff.”

It sounded good to me, so I asked, “should I get Blitz and Hearth or?”

Sam, in the few seconds that I took to ponder, had had her attention stolen by someone across the compound. She looked starry-eyed. The only indication that she heard me was a dismissive wave of her hand and a small giggle from bugle gu- I mean TJ.

Speaking of, he tapped me on the shoulder. “I never answered your… well I guess my question,” he said hesitantly.

My eyebrows rose. “Uh, oh yeah, um… sure. Go on,” I rambled. _Dammit I lost my cool. You can’t lose what you never had. Ugh, shut up Rational Me_ _™._

TJ chuckled lightly. “Uh, so… I have this job because I always wake up super early, dunno why. Also, I’m the only one with a bugle, it was a, uh, family heirloom from my great-great-great-grandfather… I think that was the right amount of ‘greats’…”

“Wow,” I said, actually impressed, “it’s cool that you still have that stuff. Especially now, I mean, even before all this,” I gestured around us vaguely, “uh, _happened_ , I didn’t even really know my grandparents, let alone great-great…”

TJ stopped me from embarrassing myself by laughing. “Yeah, yeah. I- my family is all about tradition and ancestors and stuff. I mean my name, Thomas Jefferson - you can call me TJ, I don’t mind - is the name of Thomas Jefferson Jr; the bugle grandfather’s brother, I mean the bugle is technically _his,_ but, yeah, he sacrificed himself for his comrades, he faced down a confederate soldier, I think his name was Toussaint, and won. But then he was gunned down and basically ripped to shreds from like thirty rounds of bullets.”

TJ then seemed to realise that he’d talked a lot and covered his mouth. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely, “I just- you need to go and get, uh, Blite and… um…”

I immediately felt my empathy levels sky-rocket. “No! Don’t worry, what you said, was… uh,” think of the word, “heart-warming, yeah, I um, I’ll go to Blitz and Hearth. I’ll, um, see you around?” _Don’t do it, don’t do it_. Then I finger gunned. _You idiot_.

He regained his composure, sort of. “Yeah, see ya,” he returned the awkward finger guns. Way cooler than I did, might I add?

As soon as I was out of his sight I face-palmed. Then I stopped outside what I thought was our door and pushed through, “Blitz! I need-”

I stopped abruptly. This was not our room. There was a really muscular half-naked guy sat on the bed and a girl with fiery red hair that reminded me of Merida from Brave. Not that I would say anything, because this girl had a knife against the other guy’s throat. They both turned to stare at me.

“I’ll, um…” I sputtered. “I’ll see myself out.”

Then I turned and ran to the next door, in which Blitz and Hearth were back in a comfortable position. I sighed in relief before stalking over to Blitz.

“HEY!” I shouted, louder than I thought I could manage.

Blitz was unimpressed and looked up, bleary-eyed at me. “Whad’ya wan’,” he uttered tiredly.

“I need you to wake up Hearth. I don’t want to be murdered.”

“You said that about me two days ago as well didn’t ya, kid,” he chuckled.

“Well, yeah, but Hearth’s scarier than you and if I try to wake him he would actually kill me. Besides, you two have that weird touchy language, don’t you?”

“I wouldn’t call it weird, kid. It’s normal for…” Blitz stopped talking as Hearth had apparently woken up anyway and tapped him on the shoulder.

 _Blitzen_ _moved_. Hearth signed as a simple explanation, signing a short ‘B’ for the name; it was just easier that way.

Soon we were outside and we saw that Sam was having a vicious whispered conversation with TJ. She had her axe at his throat (what was it with threating people with blades here?). He was giggling with his hands up like, ‘I surrender, but you know I’m right.’

Her head whipped toward us when she heard us. She abruptly dropped her axe to her belt and adjusted her hijab. “Oh, there you are… let’s, uh, let’s go!” She cleared her throat and marched off, beckoning for the three of us to follow her.

I rose an eyebrow at TJ, he just smirked and mouthed, ‘ask me later’. Then he pushed off the railing of the small patio back into the barrack.

 _I am so confused_ , I thought to myself as I jumped the three steps after them.

We’d seen most of the place anyway, it was just a matter of knowing where everything was and what it does. Sam was announcing everything as we went past and since she had her back turned to us, I translated for Hearth. We passed Hunding along the way and I spared a smile and a wave or him, but I don’t think he saw me, he was so weighed down with… were those windbreakers? There was an archery range (I didn’t know the sign so I just mimicked a bow and arrow, which was probably right anyway), a large kitchen and an even larger dining hall. Which was currently almost completely empty, save for what I assume was the kitchen staff enjoying their breakfast before making everyone else’s. But there was also a bunch of women with outfits similar to Sam’s and they were all decked with weapons; the Valkyries?

I didn’t have more time to gawk at them because Sam dragged us to the fuel bays and told us each job for each car, such as the van was for confirmed large amounts of supplies and was rarely used, unfortunately. There were about three SUV’s all for going long distances and collecting people to bring back here. There were even motorbikes and, surprisingly, a beat-down sports car that I could tell wasn’t getting much use. It seemed that two bays were empty and Sam said that they have teams go scouting around the clock. Which is pretty cool in the apocalypse.

The uneasiness I felt last night came back with full force when I realised how organised and… not unwelcoming? I don’t know how to explain it but, this place just put me on edge. Being toured around and having Sam casually suggest that we could work there if we wanted made it seem so permanent. Nothing in my life so far has been permanent, maybe with the exception of Blitz and Hearth, but it just- I didn’t like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if that ended abruptly or not. The chapter was originally 3400 words and I split it up because of a multitude of reasons, so this is a filler chapter. BUT shit goes down at the end of chapter five. 
> 
> So, I haven't posted for a month, probably, I don't know. 
> 
> BUT THERE IS REASON FOR IT! I have had mocks and they are kicking my arse. I mean they were only this week and I have a 2 hour 15 minute exam tomorrow that I have barely (read: have not) revised for. But you know, they're only mocks right? No, I should revise shouldn't I? Not write chapter six which I am currently doing, *cough*. 
> 
> Has anyone actually read Lord of the Flies? Whatever, I'll look through it and put when Jack calls Piggy 'Fatty' or whatever. Then go on a rant about the people that are trying to make an all female Lord of the Flies book/film/idk. It's all about descent into savagery anyway. I went on a rant about the golf industry on a 'write a newspaper article' task on Thursday. But it wasn't as bad as my friend who said the witches were clickbaiting Macbeth because she couldn't think of a better word and didn't change it at the end. 
> 
> This isn't relevant. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoyed this chapter. (sorry about the long end note)


	5. Shit Gets Real After a Boring Tour and Much Falafel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry.
> 
> Edit: Also, if you are interested in dramatic readings of an apology... uh... just read the end note I guess. You don't have to. I went a bit overboard...

After the tour of Med Bay, the duelling ring and the arts and crafts room (apparently it gets boring here and we need pretty stuff, Sam assured Blitz that it doesn’t eat at our supplies). We got a bit side-tracked by Blitz when we came across the sewing room next to it and immediately he started having a conversation with the seamstress that was already seated in there at 6:00 am (people are weird) patching what looked like leather armour. I mean, I knew Blitz was interested in fashion and stuff, but he was talking to this woman in what could’ve been another language to me. Hearth had to physically drag him out of there after about twenty minutes because he signed he was hungry.

I was happy to go to the dining hall to get food because I was fucking starving, and I’m pretty sure I smelled falafel when we went past earlier. A should-be-well-known-fact about me: I love falafel more than my father. Which is kinda two facts in one. Yay.

Once we got to the dining hall, I was considerably more rowdy than before, with the Valkyries placing plates upon plates of food onto the ten long tables that had filled up with most of the, I think it was three hundred or so (yeah, I know, it’s a lot), residents.

There were obviously quite a few missing for easily guessable reasons, such as scouting or just doing their job like the seamstress, or maybe they just couldn’t get out of bed, which honestly; mood. Sam indicated for us to go to table six and I immediately spied falafel on the table, which was coincidentally in front of TJ and the two other guys in our barrack. I hurried over to them, said a quick hi to TJ and – I’m not afraid to say this – scoffed my face full of falafel. Like, I’m not even kidding, I love that stuff. I ate it all the time when I was homeless. There was a restaurant at the food court that took pity on a homeless orphan boy and, ugh, I love it.

“He’s ravenous,” a deep voice sounded.

I looked up from my fifth falafel and saw an amused TJ, Blitz and Hearth and a horrified Sam. The voice that spoke was the muscular guy from this morning (and when I say muscular I mean like, Robinson Crusoe on steroids) and he just looked curious. From his voice I could tell his first language wasn’t English, but he seemed pretty eloquent. The red haired girl from earlier just looked on, her expression didn’t change.

“Sorry,” I said, my mouth still full of falafel. “I-”

“No need to explain, you’re hungry,” TJ said politely.

“Hmm, yes, I remember when I first came here, I hadn’t had a meal in days! I got really bad indigestion,” the big guy added.

His words kind of put me off eating too much of this at once. “Oh.”

“Oh, but do not worry, you will be fine,” he reassured me, “the food here is good!”

The girl next to him rolled her eyes. “Tell that to Erik, he died of food poisoning last week,” she said flatly with the tone of someone who had seen death too many times. She spoke with an Irish brogue, which I thought was pretty cool.

At the mention of Erik, the mood turned sullen, and I had to wonder about how many people here died regularly.

Then Sam broke it. “Magnus, you eat like a pig.”

“True,” I replied, shoving another falafel into my mouth. Indigestion doesn’t scare me when falafel is just so alluring.

“Oh, Magnus. That was your name,” TJ said.

I looked at him, confused. “Did I not tell you? Sorry, man. I guess I forgot.”

“Nah, it’s fine, I didn’t think to ask.”

“My name is Halfborn Gunderson,” the muscular guy cut in, extending his hand toward me and then Blitz and Hearth respectively while asking for their names politely. Hearth signed his name, and what do you know? Halfborn knew ASL as well.

The red haired girl sat with her arms crossed and stated shortly, “Mallory Keen.”

I saluted her before going back to my beloved meal.

Maybe it should have seemed weird that they served falafel for breakfast, but that honestly did not come into my mind once when I saw it on the table. I think I scared everyone around me off when I literally shovelled it all in my mouth, but… it’s falafel, man. I just can’t leave it there, looking so lonely and delicious.

Everyone else was having a conversation that went directly over my head. It was around the time when my stomach felt a bit stretched that I heard Sam squeak and grab my shoulder for support.

I heard a distinct, “Hey!” before I turned, that voice sounded familiar.

I was staring at a tall Arabic guy with a big smile on his face, his gaze was trained on Sam, but when I turned, it landed on me. His jaw dropped and he pointed at me with his right hand, clicking his fingers as if he would suddenly remember my name.

“Jimmy!” he gasped, genuinely surprised to see me.

I winced, _oh…_ _yeah_. “Hey, Amir…”

Sam glanced between the two of us, who were now just staring awkwardly at each other. “Um…” She glanced quickly at me, I panicked and shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “His name is Magnus, how did you…?”

Amir’s face contorted to a deep frown. “Am I being silly?” He faced me again, “You’re not Jimmy?”

My face must’ve been hilariously blank because I sat there with absolutely nothing going through my head. “Uh…”

“You used to come to my father and I’s restaurant for falafel, which…” he gestured to the nearly empty plate, “you seem to fit, I guess, you might just be a doppelgänger, I don’t know.”

I could tell he was trying to get me to remember (I did) and was trying to not seem like he was pushing me into remembering him (which was much appreciated). His awkward stuttering made me feel really bad so I blurted, “I am Jimmy,” Sam turned to me, confused, “I mean, my real name’s not Jimmy, as she said, its Magnus… so, uh… nice to meet you.”  I stuck out my hand and he took it, his frown lessened, which I took as a good sign.  

Then he gestured for me to follow him. I did, it was probably the least I could do at this point. Plus, this guy was one of the most trustworthy people I had ever met. Not enough to give my real name apparently, but that’s not important. Anyway, he only took me outside the door to the kitchen which wasn’t that far from our table to be honest, but it was out of everyone else’s earshot so I called that a win.

He released my hand and lowered his voice. “Do you not want me to bring up, um-” he stopped, obviously not sure what to call it.

“The homeless thing,” I supplied.

He let out a small chuckle. “Yeah… that. By the way, no hard feelings about your name, by the way. I said ‘by the way’ twice, sorry.”

Amir’s awkwardness in that moment was so relatable that I had to smile. I punched his arm lightly, “Yeah, man. We’re cool.”

“Yeah…” he trailed off not sure what to say. “Hey do you want to go back-”

“ABSOLUTELY!” I yelled, then immediately wished I hadn’t as eyes turned to stare at us huddled in the corner of the room.

Amir went red at the sudden attention and swiftly made his way back to the table, I struggled to keep up as my legs were shorter (I just want to say that I am _not_ short, I’m 5’8 and a growing boy, Amir’s like 6 foot already) and he walked to the table with the velocity of one of those mom’s that is suddenly health conscious and speed walks every morning.

The table had significantly less people when we returned. Our three housemates had left, probably to actually do some work or whatever. Now I could see that Jack from before had joined us and he was having a hushed conversation with Sam, both of which had equally serious and concerned looks upon their faces.

I sat down again in my vacant seat. There was less falafel on my plate, but I really didn’t care at this point because Sam and Jack abruptly left the table. It became quiet as more people stopped talking and looked at the door they had left.

In the almost silent room there was a clatter from the kitchen. All of the heads whipped to the makeshift window where I recognised Amir’s father, Abdel, bending down to pick up a wok that he had obviously knocked down.

Amir, who hadn’t sat down yet said a quick “Bye,” before heading over to the kitchen to help his father.

I don’t know what came over me, but there was a slight whistling or ringing sound that resonated through the hall that I recognised. There was some switch in my brain that just was like, ‘bad idea’ and my instincts took over. I leapt up from my seat and shouted, “Amir, NO!”

He turned with a confused expression, so did his dad. I could see the recognition in Abdel’s eyes before a deep _BOOM_ shook the whole hall and knocked me down.

There was a bunch of floating dust particles and I could see the outside, there was a black mass near the motel but I couldn’t make it out because I was immediately rushed by Hearth while Blitz went around me and helped Amir off the floor, his left leg was trapped beneath a pile of rubble and Blitz pried him free.

 _Abdel_ , my mind shouted as I looked over at the debris where he was once standing. The entire framework of the kitchen was destroyed, it was a miracle that Amir and I weren’t that badly affected. I might have spoken too soon as Amir was leaning heavily on Blitz but frantically trying to get to where his dad was in trapped, or worse.

We all got to the rubble joined by a few others that were in the hall, the rest - I’m assuming - had ran out or were hiding in the corners of the hall. But at that point I didn’t care, all I could think about was this man who had been so, so kind to me. One who had helped me in so many ways that he himself didn’t even know about. I had to get him out, if not for my sake, for Amir’s, who was frantically scrabbling at the rubble, his desperation only lessened when he pulled a piece away and saw a shock of blood and a mangled hand.

I heard a sharp intake of breath over my shoulder, the person in question shoved me out of the way. The green hijab gave away that it was Sam. She, with even more ferocity than Amir and I combined, pulled away the rest of the rubble, revealing Abdel. He wasn’t moving. Sam whipped around and yanked Jack - who was stood behind me, his face gaunt - down to Abdel. I could see Jack shaking his head, I could hear the faint yells of Sam, but all I could focus on was Amir’s crying face and Abdel’s dead body.

My vision blurred at the edges and I just stood there, staring at Amir’s face like I was looking into a mirror. My mind dove deep into a place that I hadn’t been in for a long time and I couldn’t stop it, I had to let it continue.

Sam marched over and grabbed my arm. “We have to go, NOW!”

I didn’t move from my spot. “ _What_?” My voice came out quiet and choked.

“I said we have to _go_ , Magnus. That’s not too hard to understand,” she said, her voice oddly garbled.

She started to drag me, until I realised that Hearth also had one of my arms and Blitz, Amir and Jack were already outside. Then I voluntarily moved my legs to go over to them, leaving the kindest man on Earth in the pile of debris. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have much time rn so I might give you more info later, but hey it's only been a week! 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed and I AM SO SORRY I REALLY AM I AM A PIECE OF OLD SHIT LEFT IN A FIELD TO ROT!
> 
> Edit: Hi, don't know if you cared, but you might be wondering why I am 'a piece of old shit' or; PoopyFuckFace McShitStainArseMuncher VII, as is my full title. 
> 
> Anyway, ever since I was a little McShitStainArseMuncher, I had dreamed of writing a story. Yet my attempts were flawed, some more than others ('Lucy's Painting Problems' will forever be a smudge on my career) and I used shit plot devices to further my plot because I wanted action. 
> 
> Have I grown out of this? No. 
> 
> Instead I sat here, with my arse comfortably on a chair loaded with too many blankets and thought to myself, 'you know, I'm losing motivation, I better make it more action packed' and how do I do that? You may ask? 
> 
> I KILLED A MAN. 
> 
> I am a stain on the McShitStainArseMuncher's literary genius line, by KILLING a character to further my plot. I have reached the lowest of the low. There is no coming back for me. I am done; dead, you will never forgive me. All of that, and for a singular tear-jerking moment that will give Amir a more complex character arc? 
> 
> ...wait...
> 
> *gasp* 
> 
> If I do that, will you forgive me? 
> 
> I'M DOING IT!


	6. I Don’t Know What’s Happening Anymore and the Author is Quaking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry again, but only 20 days, that's not bad! 
> 
> For me at least. I don't know why you guys stick around for an inconsistent schedule like mine...

Outside was a field of scurrying heads. But then in the centre of the trelleborg, near the main motel, was an army.

Not your typical hoard of _Draugr_ waiting to chew your face off (not really, I’m not sure what the _Draugr_ do but I don’t think they chew off faces), no, this army was human. Humans with guns.

I gaped as I saw the army open fire on the fleeing people.

There was someone in the crowd - carrying an air rifle – who I should _not_ _see_. They were not alive, they were _not_.

Sam yanked us around the building and all five of us crouched around the corner. I was not having a fun time.

“Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god,” I kept repeating as I clutched my head, “this is not happening, nope, no guns, no gangs, you are not here in a fucking battle, no _fucking_ way-”

Amir grabbed my hands to stop me from scratching my face off, “J- Magnus… calm down. You - right now - are fine.” He glanced over to Sam who had her axe in her hand, looking around the corner with a crumpled look on her face, she sent a fleeting look towards Amir before directing her gaze back into the fray.

Hearth rubbed my exposed arm soothingly and traced messages into them. Blitz looked too wrapped up in his own emotions to help me. When I glimpsed at him, Hearth did the same, his eyes went wide and immediately gripped Blitz’s hand. Blitz looked at him and they had a conversation using just their eyes. That happened a lot, usually when they were worried about me, although I didn’t think it was about me this time. Especially after looking at Blitz’s grief-stricken face.

“Hey guys,” came a loud whisper. To the left of us was a flash of ruffled looking red hair. “Um, this isn’t good.”

“No, it fucking isn’t,” a heartbroken voice warbled out of Sam. I don’t think I’d heard her swear before.

“Whoa, hey,” Amir poked her briefly, “I don’t think that Allah-”

“I think he can make an exception,” she spoke sharply.

“Who- what... happened?” I asked, her face looked like she was on the verge of tears.

“My… my-” she stuttered her face crumpling as she tried to get out the words.

_BANG!_

A shot went off near where Sam was sitting. “ _SHIT_!” her voice whisper-shouted as she clutched her foot that was bleeding profusely through her battered sneaker.

Immediately Jack spoke up. “Okay, we need to leave, now!” he flashed a set of keys toward us and gestured for us to follow him.

I obliged, offering to help carry Sam with us to what was hopefully the cleanest SUV, although, I didn’t really care at that point, until I got the _fuck_ out of there. We crept along the bottom of the hill nearing the fuel bay where the SUV that took us here was kept. Even before we got there I could see two figures scrabbling at the doors, the two cars either side already gone. They looked familiar and my hand tightened around Sam’s arm, hoping against hope that they were the friendly kind of familiar.

I never found out. Behind me there was a deep male voice shouting, “OH SHIT!”

_BOOM!_

My back exploded in pain and I fell heavily on Sam and Amir.

\--

_“MAGNUS!” A voice I hadn’t heard in years yelled and I turned in a full circle trying to find the source. I saw a wisp of blonde hair before it went away again._

_“Where are you?” I shouted back._

_“I-” the voice faded out, “-ear you!” I clutched my head, trying to remember. The voice was so familiar and connected to before… before the beginning. I felt frustrated. That person would know what to do, I had a feeling they always did._

_“I need you!” I shouted, “You… I need to know if you’re alive!”_

_A different voice came back a whisper, “Oh, darling. She’s gone too.”_

\--

_“Hey…” I turned to look into my mother’s sparkling green eyes. “I know it looks bad, but I can handle this,” she spoke softly and cupped my cheek._

_“Are you sure you don’t want me to get a job? I can help, you know!” I countered._

_She let out a small sigh, looking down to the papers printed with too many numbers strewn across the floor. Her gaze found its way back to mine, she just looked at me for a bit before dropping her hand._

_“You know… I never had to get a job until I was eighteen,” she said sadly. “I wouldn’t want you to go through something that I haven’t when you’re only twelve, Magnus.”_

_“But… mom-” I tried._

_“No. I am final about this. You will not work to fix my own mistakes. Nor should you try and find_ anywhere _else to help,” I knew she was avoiding the obvious. That she could easily get her brother to help, but there was absolutely no way she was going to him for anything._

_I grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug. I really couldn’t imagine a life without her or this house._

_“Oh! This isn’t like you, Mr. I-Hate-Physical-Contact,” she said jokingly._

_I let out a little laugh. “Promise me one thing?” I asked._

_“Depends…” she answered, voice light._

_“I just… I don’t want you to get hurt.”_

_She pushed me back, her face serious. “Where did you get that idea?”_

_“I- um…” I didn’t want to say that I’d read some of the latest papers, “I- I don’t know.”_

_“Hey…” she repeated, “that stuff, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that this weekend we’re going to that new park in the_ Green Mountains _that I’ve been talking about…”_

\--

I woke up on a roof. I lifted my head slightly to see a few blurry figures and a drop, so I assumed roof, because that’s what they looked like right? I was also trying to piece together the garbled memories and dreams that happened. I had no idea which ones were real. I remember opening my eyes to see two faces close to my own, their skin tones led me to believe that they were Blitz and Hearth, but I really couldn’t be sure. Then the disembodied voice telling me my cousin was dead filtered through my brain and the memory of my mother two years before _it_ happened. Tears welled up in the corners of my eyes. My throat let out a choked sound.

“Hey! He made a sound, I think he’s awake!” Someone shouted. _Bad idea,_ I thought, the _Draugr_ can still hear despite being undead warriors or whatever they are, no one fucking knows, and if they did they won’t tell me.

I suddenly realised that I was swathed in blankets and that I was cold. Not like temperature cold, because I don’t really get affected by weather that much, it was inside cold, like I was numb. I tried to lift one arm and, to my amazement, I could. It was stiff but I could.

Groggily, I forced myself up into a sitting position, then my head swam and I collapsed back down. A loud and jumpy voice then attacked my ear, “WHOA! Kid, you need to, like, _not_ do that.”

My voice was haggard and deep, “Blitz?” I blinked the bleariness away and could see that, yes, it was.

“Hey, kid,” he patted my head, making a tutting noise at the state of my hair. “You need to take it easy, we got Jack to perform emergency surgery to remove some shrapnel out of your back…”

“There was _what_?” I asked, incredulous.

“There was an explosion at the compound, that’s why you collapsed.” He answered shortly.

Too shortly. “ _WHAT?!_ ” I yelled, forgetting the _Draugr_. Then I immediately remembered and went to slap a hand over my mouth, but it got stuck and I just hit myself in the face with a blanket covered arm. I finally got it out of the blanket and rubbed the sore part of my face. “Why?” I asked quietly.

“Why was there an explosion?” He asked. I nodded. “It seems like Jack is the only one that really knows what the fuck’s going on and he won’t talk about it, mainly because he’s avoiding mine and Hearth’s questions. Now saying he’s the ‘medic of the squad’ and he’ll answer us later,” he sighed, “the thing is, Sam also doesn’t really know, but she had some, uh, _educated_ _guesses_ , as she put it.”

“And?” I asked, a bit pissed why Jack wouldn’t tell us the reason I nearly fucking died. Shrapnel isn’t a fucking joke, ever seen Iron Man?

“And…” he looks around, apparently the coast was clear, he whispered, “I don’t really believe her, I think she knows more than she’s letting on, but apparently it was a gang war?”

That sounded plausible to me, honestly. “That could be it, though,” I murmured back.

He shook his head, looking at me in sympathy. He knew. “No, there’s something else going on here, who shows up to a perfectly well functioning place that would have offered them asylum and shoot it up, along with a bunch of civilians in the fucking apocalypse?”

“But maybe-” I started, trying not to drag up bad memories.

“No, Magnus, trust me. Gangs will raid and shit like that,” he glanced at my face, “and kill when necessary…” I wasn’t looking at him anymore, “but they don’t send a place up in fucking flames with a bunch of supplies and people that could be useful. Not even the worst ones. You know who does do that?” He asked seriously.

My voice was really quiet. “Who?”

Blitz sat back and picked at his hands. “The government.”

I blanched. “The fucking government?” I asked, “The one that collapsed? That one? What the-”

“Okay maybe not the actual government. But Magnus, gangs in the apocalypse want supplies and followers, and Sam said she’d never seen these guys before. These guys are snuffing out post-apocalyptic settlements. We’ve stumbled across a pretty big conspiracy here.”

My mouth dropped open. “They- they left no one?”

Blitz looked at my face and shuffled closer, placing his arm around my shoulders. “Hey,” he poked my side, “you don’t know that, we got out, and we were the last out of the dining hall, people would have gotten out before us.” He didn’t say the fact that they had only started shooting when we had gotten out of the hall.

Like we were the trigger.

I felt someone else awkwardly try and sit on my other side, moving the pillow for my head that was really just a hoodie, my hoodie, from my bag.

My head shot toward Blitz again. “How’d you get my bag from the trillberg place?”

Blitz looked across to Hearth – the person that had sat down – guiltily, and signed what I had said since I had turned away from him.

Hearth tapped me on the shoulder, an expression on his face that I couldn’t decipher. _We had to leave you in the car._ He signed. He didn’t have to say anything else, I knew that they went back for their bags, question is, what did it cost?

I signed him the question and he sighed and ran a hand through his nicely brushed hair, courtesy of Blitz I’d imagine. _T–J._ He spelled. _He was left there, red hair and muscles wanted to go back for him._ He didn’t want to waste time with spelling their names, because TJ’s was just two letters while Mallory and Halfborn are a bit longer, he used what could be classed as nicknames in ASL, but those would probably stick as their name signs now.

I wonder if they would be offended. But that meant that the two figures by the car were Mallory and Halfborn. I’m glad that they all made it out alive. Wait, did they? He didn’t say.

I looked over the roof, and then behind me to see if they were asleep near us, wait… this building is on the top of a fucking mountain. We were miles away from the Green Mountains in New Hampshire, what the fuck? I mean they weren’t astronomically far away, but it must have been a few days on the road to make it here. Why is there a flat- topped building, with deck chairs on top, on a mountain? Surely there are better investments? It seems like this was supposed to be one of those modern mansions that are secluded, how did Jack, or whoever was driving know how to get here? Why-?

You know what? I’m going to stop before I give myself an aneurysm from high blood pressure. No one ever tells me anything so what’s the point of worrying about it? Modern mansion with deck chairs and shit and we decided to sleep on the roof? No, brain, I said we would stop questioning.

Oh wait, the others. _Where are they?_ I signed.

They shared a look over my head and Blitz asked if I could walk, I said yeah. They knew I was lying so they hauled me up and walked me to the sleek trap door that had a keypad and everything. What a rich fuck. Blitz put in the key code 3-8-2-5. I sniggered because that spelled F-U-C-K, I know because that was my phone password when I was eleven. I was an edgy kid.

Once the trap door was opened Blitz and Hearth helped me inside, to a room completely stripped bare, with what was clearly an operating table with some drying blood on it that Sam and Halfborn were scrubbing.

I could spy Mallory and Amir in the kitchen with a campfire stove, making what I hoped was falafel. They both looked a little worse for wear, Amir’s motions sharp and forlorn. Mallory had a bandage around her head and a few grazes on her face. She was tentatively giving soft directions and condolences, as well as trying to move him away from the hot stove that he burned himself on because he was distracted. Remembering Sam, I saw that she was moving gingerly and her foot had a makeshift cast tied with thin pink belts.

I let myself have a small smile, _we made it_.

My face hurt from the movement, but I opened my mouth to make my presence known. At the time I didn’t know what was happening and my mouth ran dry. My breathing went ragged and I saw all of their faces grow with concern as my vision unfocused and patterns danced smugly before my eyes. I could hear a chorus of my name as I fell back into Hearthstone’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey. I'm posting this earlier than the rational part of my brain would like because I haven't finished chapter seven yet but... oh I wanted to ok? I'm an inconsistent okayer and I don't like that about myself...
> 
> Plus in the last chapter I was evil and I rewrote it to make Amir's dad more of a major character and I think I'm a shitlord because of it but hey, it's more interesting? 
> 
> Anyway in this chapter I had to learn American geography because idk that shit. But I think I did ok and I added Annabeth! Slightly... I had to write that bit SO MANY TIMES because I was so unhappy with it, but it's eh now and that's really the peak of my writing skills so... yeah.
> 
> She'll come up more later. So will Alex, I have plans... Sort of... I don't know where this is going to be honest. 
> 
> The original chapter title was funny but wouldn't fit and I can't remember all of it now so that's lost forever. 
> 
> Anyway hope you enjoyed it. I always forget what is in these chapters and hopefully I won't procrastinate and stop writing chapter seven right after I post this because that is a tendency of mine. 
> 
> So yeah! Love you guys and your lovely comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter!
> 
> I already wrote the second chapter, I'm just saving it for the sake of a consistent schedule - because God knows I'm not good at those - and for any edits I make to the third one. 
> 
> Also, as you may have noticed, I am not American, so if I spell something the British way please tell me, I'll change it, I promise I won't be offended. As long as you do it nicely. 
> 
> I'm also aware that this fandom is pretty dead, so I'm not expecting a huge audience (why do I do this to myself?), but if you do happen to read this, thank you! And there will be more Blitzstone, Samir and Beatrice in future, I promise!


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